I love bands that wear costumes. Gwar, The Aquabats, and, of course, KISS. There's something about a group of musicians who have a concept. They're not just playing music. They are creating a bewildering and entertaining masquerade narrative entirely for the benefit of your startled imagination. That, my friends, is some goddamn commitment.

So, I was predisposed to liking the band Lordi. These Finnish rockers, and winners of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, do costumes right. They didn't just put together a bunch of random creatures and gruesome prosthetics into some thoughtless melange. Underpinning the costumes is a philosophy of sorts, what lead singer and spiritual guide Mr. Lordi calls "Monstericanism". And that's pretty cool, even if that name is clearly an attempt by a non-native English speaker to come up with a cool sounding English word. Also cool: the drummer's name is Kita The Extraterrestrial Man-Beast.

I could talk about Lordi all day, but to get a real sense of their awesomeness, you should just watch this video. I've helpfully annotated this video, just in case you get lost or scared.